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June 28, 2016

Q&A Interview with British young Actor Guy Potter

Each one of us has a story to tell and everyone we meet is fighting a battle we know nothing
about. This section “The Q & A Interview with inspiring people” is dedicated to exceptional personalities, who either have something to
educate us or to inspire us.

Today I want you to meet Guy Potter, a young British
actor and Film production company owner from London. Despite his young age Guy is
without a doubt an inspirational personality with a mature attitude towards
Life and his work in the film industrie. Also not many actors in his age have names of Hollywood Stars like Tom Cruise or Robert Downey Jr. on their Vita.

"Experiencing people like Tom Cruise &

Christoph Waltz do their thing left a

huge impression on me." Guy Potter

Guy the reason why I asked you
for a “Q&A interview” is because I feel that you are an old soul trapped in
a young body. :-) I read one of your recent interviews and I could easily pick a
dozen of inspiring quotes. Quotes that not only inspire artistic people, but everyone
about your admirable attitude towards Life and work in general. I quote one
example: “Have absolute faith in your
ability and set no limits” is one of my favourite.So how come that you are such a
wise soul? Any explanations? :-)

Well… I’m not too sure, maybe they caught me on a good
day…! I think it’s probably something to do with clarity of purpose. With
something like acting its essential you get how there and experience as much as
possible, you also meet a lot of people who all have different reasons for
being in the acting world and different
motivations, - that sense of mixed purpose is great, but it also gets balanced
out by a lot of extra noise. You sometimes encounter people doubting themselves
and setting limits, and by it’s nature that will restrict what they achieve.
Too many plan b’s or c’s, “what if this fails” or “what if that doesn’t work
out” and suddenly you’re not focused on the plan A, and then it’ll never work
out. The more I hear of that kind of thing, the more it it makes you asses your
core values and really focus.

Nicely said! :-) Guy there are
not many young actors in your age, who can actually say that they recently worked
on Film productions with Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise, Samuel L. Jackson,
Christoph Waltz and Robert Downey Jr. So how did you feel, when you knew you
would be on the film set like Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation? Was it as
great and exiting as it sounds?

It absolutely is, if not even more so, as sometimes
you wont know what the film is until you’re there, they use working title’s
which can be confusing but that’s why they exist. For instance Avengers was
called ‘AfterParty’ and then when you’re in wardrobe and you see an Iron Man
costume it’s a bit of a shock! It’s a ‘try and be cool about it’ moment from
then on out. I’ve done a lot of productions that aren’t nearly as big, but when
you’re on a major studio film you cant help but be over awed by what’s going on
around you, everything’s on a scale you cant imagine.

You were in these movies as an
actor, unfortunately uncredited (for now), but what was the best lesson for you
acting and production wise and why? Which one of these stars did you actually
saw in action or get to talk to?

Well as it is for everyone else too, some of the
scenes I’ve worked on get cut out, I did a week on Maleficent that never saw
the light of day, but if the scene does get used and I’m left out, I’m almost
in a constant battle with IMDb about it.

I’d say Tarzan was the biggest lesson. That was the
first time I saw how a big production works. Me and a couple others got drafted
in during the summer of 2014 and we had many weeks of boot camp for a fight
scene, we had history lessons, military drill’s, firearm workshops, an audience
with a guy who’d actually lived in the jungle with gorilla’s… you name it. That was the beginning of me being interested
in how a film is made right from it’s beginning. Sadly the scene got changed
before filming and they went with something else instead… a shame, but thing’s
change right up until the last minute you get used to it. I wont rely on
anything till it physically comes out and I’m in it now!

That geared me up for Rogue Nation quite well though,
I was a stand-in for Jeremy Renner and that evolved into working on the motorbike
chase scene, doing pick-ups & re-shoots at Warner Bros Studios near London.
I’d watched those movies since I was a kid and that was a great few months. If
you have the opportunity to get involved with a big production, it’s worth it
at any level. You come across some of the biggest names in the industry and get
to see them do their job first hand: how they interpret the scenes you’ve seen
that day and how they perform it - that’s a better master-class than money can
buy. Experiencing people like Tom Cruise & Christoph Waltz do their thing
left a huge impression on me.

I write a monthly #Lilywood
review where I list my personal #MUSTC and #WOT (Waste of Time) Movies. What
are your TOP three #MUSTC movies and why? And which three are your #WOT movies
and why?

I agree a lot with what you’ve said on there. I think
a summer or two ago, there were at least four major studio films out and every
single one of their ending sequences involved a city getting invaded/destroyed
at the end. I mean, it’s the same plot! Just repackaged in a different film… sometimes
you need a dose of reality.

Top three #MUSTC, well I always enjoy looking back on
a successful actor’s career and studying their path to see what choices they
made, you can find some gems doing that. I’d go for ‘A River RunsThrough It’ directed
by Robert Redford starring a Young Brad Pitt, great little film about life in
Montana. I really like The Last Samurai, which is a blend of a big production
with the feel of a smaller one, but it’s just such a great narrative. More
recently I saw ‘Whiplash’ and was just mesmerized, the last ten minutes are
something else.

In term of the Waste Of Time’rs, well I’m really going
off the whole superhero thing, (despite having worked on one!) in Isolation
they can be great but just the whole churning out the same re-worked formula
put’s me off, but I suppose that’s hard to avoid with the whole ‘Marvel
Universe’.

I cant name specific’s but sometimes I like watching
movies that are not so good to just learn how not to do something. When you
watch a good movie you get lost in the narrative after a while, but with a bad
one you can really analyze what’s not working.

You started acting at a young age in school.
After training in stage you transitioned to film where you feel more at home. You
have visited several Academy courses in Los Angeles and London, including the extensive
Stunt & Firearms training at Warner Bros studios you mentioned earlier.
Meanwhile you have done short films, commercials and played roles in television.
What was the best experience during your educational years? And what was the
worst and most challenging one and why? Also as an actor do you prefer to play
a good and nice characters or a bad and nasty person?

Well, my appendix rupturing whilst doing a run of ‘My
Fair Lady’ in the theatre wasn’t great! I thought I was just sick and could
power through it, the Director suggested she could go out and read off the
script but I was having none of it. I went out and did three nights in a daze,
I got through it but collapsed the day after and was in hospital for two weeks.
Best experience, well I really enjoyed a summer at The American Academy of
Dramatic art in LA – the quality of alumni is almost intimidating. On par with
that it has to be stunt related training, I love that – the choreography, the
combat, the research and training, sword and firearm, motorbike’s and driving
it all just adds a great dynamic to a performance, its an art form in itself.
As an actor doing characters, someone with depth I really enjoy getting into
character and doing the research and fleshing them out, the more of that the
better really. I’ve got to be able to relate to them too, anything superficial
and I’m gone. Ryan Gosling’s character’s he’s played and his body of work to
where he got today is really something, it’s to be admired.

You recently worked with the Queen of England. Well
not the real one, but a young actress, who is playing Queen
Elizabeth II as a 25-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of
leading the world's most famous monarchy in the TV Series “The Crown”.
How did it feel like to be part of a historical production like this where the
story it based on your countries history?

Yes I suppose I did! Claire Foy is playing Queen
Elizabeth, she went to a friend of mine’s drama school and they’re very proud
of her there. I didn’t have a scene with her unfortunately but I did watch them
filming in the next room. It uses real locations and travels all over the
country, my scenes were done on The Mall just down from Buckingham Palace, so
it’s as real as you’ll get. I’m singing in that one too actually, it’s a huge
production put on by Netflix and the trailer looks great, I think it will go
down really well, especially as Downton Abbey is no more… quite a good time to
be a Brit!

I can’t believe that I’m saying
this. But you have actually founded an
independent production company “High Sierra Films“ in London because you want
to be more involved in the filmmaking process. As if that’s not admiring enough for a young man in your
age, you are actually working right now on your first independent film. What
can you tell us about your first project? Will you be in front or behind the
camera or both?

That’s very true I have yes, I founded High Sierra Films
because as actor you’re just a small cog in a big machine and I think it’s
essential to understand how the machine works. You’d be surprised how many of
the big actors have their own production companies; sometimes I see their
logo’s turn up before a totally unrelated production to their normal body of
work and its interesting to see what they get up to.

We helped with a film festival in Los Angeles last
year but right now we’re doing a short called “Whatever the Weather” in
conjunction with a production company called French 75. I’m behind the camera
this time, we’ve got a chap called Schaffer McLean in front and it’s looking
great so far, a feature is in the works but for now we’re focused on this.

I can’t help it, but I feel that
the quality of movies has changed drastically in the last decades. Animation
and Special effect wise the movies are on top, but story wise the more time
goes by the less I found inspiring and touching stories. The film industry is
either re-producing old blockbusters or producing uninspiring action and crime
films for fast, easy money. What will your production company produce? What
will be the legacy of “High Sierra Films“?

Our goal right from the start was ‘to
produce inspiring movies and media’. You have to have a good narrative and
story, once you’ve got that it’s about making it enticing to an audience whilst
finding your angle on the story telling. Finding a team to work with that can
nuture a project through the stages is the priority, and it has to be
collaborative. It’s funny, no matter what level of filmmaking you witness, they
all have the fundamentals in common, just on bigger levels - even on Mission
Impossible: Rogue Nation thing’s were sometimes improvised… that really threw
me! We’re at a point now where we’ve got a few projects in motion, all at
different stages, but I suppose our legacy would be to make a difference, and
to bring something to light that hasn’t been seen before. I’d really like to
tie-in a future project with environment and wildlife protection, that’s a
pretty big passion of mine.

I don’t know if you have seen my “Entertain
& Educate post” about my Film project plans. But as you see I’m
trying to make a short film and a featured Film happen.
So what advice do you have for me and other Authors, who want to bring their
story on screen? How should we approach production companies and make them a
part of our journey?

Well I would start first by getting involved with
local film community in some way, whether that be at a film school or film
festival level - they have huge connections in the film world as they act like
a hub for people trying to collaborate. Ideally you need a team of like-minded
people involved, a director, a producer etc - people who can share the same
vision and get on board. Have a good narrative, find your angle and target
audience - make it enticing. Get all your ducks in a row and package it well,
and then comes a point where you have to leave creativity behind and go into
business mode… many people hand that over to someone else at that point as that
becomes hard with your own project. People in high up production companies need
to be shown that it will be a success, and the more you can do that the better…
but once a few people are on board and it picks up momentum… who knows who may
come across it and there’s no telling where it could end up.

Guy if I was an Angel and would ask you right now and right here, what is your biggest professional or personal dream, desire, goal or wish. What would you answer?

Interesting one! Well, professionally it would be to have the ability to chose project, I’d like to be in a place where there were more options, though I’m sure everybody would... aside from that it would be good if people were a bit more inclusive with each other, there’s a lot of division at the moment and not much progress comes from that. I went to a Coldplay concert recently and they’ve made a choice to put in as much energy and feeling in as possible, and you get a show that’s full of ambition, colour, high energy and trying to get people to unite in something and have a great time. The positivity emitting from everyone after that was amazing, it was on a different level… we could do with some of that in everything we do.

What a beautiful and selfless answer Guy. And I say it again: You are an old soul.:-) So last but not least, ever
since Im working on the last book of my trilogy “Definition of Love”, I ask all my
inspirational interview partners these two questions. What is your definition
of Love in three words? What is your definition of Love in one sentence?I can’t wait to hear the answer to these two questions
from a wise soul like yours. :-)

“You… complete… me.”
how about that, or is that too cheesy?! I couldn’t not say it… that’s a great scene
in Jerry Maguire.

I think it’s hard to
define, the very reason you cant explain it is what makes it so great for
people, you cant force it or genuinely try and make it up, it doesn’t happen
often and when it does, it takes you completely by surprise… something with
that much of influence on someone is a powerful thing.

Guy it was really a pleasure to do this Interview with you. I have no doubt that you will make your way and I look forward to see you in Action infront as well as behind the camera. I wish you the best of success as an actor and as a fim producer.

If you know any inspiring personality like
Guy Potter, who should be discovered and promoted on my BLOG, please contact me and
I will decide whether I will do a “Question
and Answer Interview” and promote their work or not! Many thanks in advance
and God bless. Lily

I’m a nominated Multi-Genre Author, Blogger, Artist and Publisher. I’m the Author of “Destination: Freedom” and eleven more titles. With my honest memoir I have enjoyed strong media exposure and public interest during the refugee crises in summer 2015. Placements included two features with national newspaper the Daily Mirror as well as interviews with popular British lifestyle websites Female First and Frost Magazine. I had to fight against injustice, prejudice, discrimination and social isolation for almost three decades to become who I am today. An Independent Publisher and Author with the goal to entertain and educate readers about important and eye-opening topics in our society. Check out my seasonal Free blogger magazine “Read My Mind” on my website! Social media contacts: Website: www.lilyamis.com – www.nasSima-design.com, LilyAmis.blogspot.com, nasSimadesign.blogspot.com, Twitter: @nassimadesign and @ReadMyMindMag, Youtube: sndesign2011, Facebook: @LilyAmisAuthor and @ReadMyMindMagazine. Visit my store: www.society6.com/nassimadesign.